Fatima mystery blends visions, miracles and supernatural

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NICOLE WINFIELD and BARRY HATTON,Associated Press Wed, May 10 3:28 AM PDT 

VATICAN CITY (AP) — When Pope Francis travels to the Portuguese town of Fatima this weekend, he will be lending his blessing to a religious phenomenon that has captivated Catholics for a century: It involves visions of the Virgin Mary, supernatural meteorological events and apocalyptic prophesies of hell, Soviet communism and the death of a pope.

For doubters, the Fatima story is a trumped-up tale built around hallucinations. For believers, Fatima's message of peace, prayer and conversion from sin is as relevant today as it was 100 years ago, when three illiterate shepherd children first reported seeing visions of the Madonna.

The pope will canonize two of those children on Saturday and is likely to make his own Fatima message of peace and conversion as a weapon against secularism and the persecution of Christians today.

Here are details about Francis' Friday-Saturday trip to Fatima.

WHAT HAPPENED AT FATIMA?

The three shepherd children, siblings Francisco and Jacinta Marto and their cousin Lucia aged between 7 and 10 at the time, said the Virgin Mary appeared to them six times in 1917 and confided to them three secrets. The first two described an apocalyptic image of hell, foretold the end of World War I and the start of World War II, and the rise and fall of Soviet communism.

In 2000, the Vatican disclosed the long-awaited third secret, describing it as foretelling the May 13, 1981, assassination attempt against St. John Paul II in St. Peter's Square.

John Paul credited the Virgin Mary with saving his life. One of the bullets fired at him rests in the crown of the statue of the Virgin at the shrine.

Portuguese church officials initially doubted the veracity of the apparitions. Many doubters, though, became believers after the so-called "Miracle of the Sun" on Oct. 13, 1917. According to legend, the Fatima "seers" had predicted that the Virgin would perform a miracle that day, and tens of thousands of people flocked to Fatima and saw what witnesses reported was a vision of the sun "spinning" in the sky and zigzagging toward Earth.

The Portuguese church declared the visions authentic in 1930.

WHAT WAS GOING ON AT THE TIME?

At the time of the apparitions, Europe was still in the grip of World War I and Portugal's Catholic Church was facing a crisis after Portugal became a republic in 1910.

The republican government introduced a host of anti-clerical laws, including prohibiting religious teaching at schools. Priests and bishops were exiled.

In that context, the visions helped reinvigorate a persecuted church, giving it "a strong eruption of the supernatural in that difficult moment," said Monsignor Carlos Azevedo, who headed the commission that compiled 15 volumes of Fatima documentation.

Church officials point to the reported secrets about a Second World War, the dangers of Soviet communism and the persecution of the pope and Christians in general, as evidence of Fatima's prophetic message.

WHAT DO PEOPLE DO IN FATIMA?

Like the shrine at Lourdes, France, Fatima draws millions of pilgrims from around the world — about 6 million annually — to give thanks to Our Lady of Fatima, or to pray for help.

Many walk to the town, which is 150 kilometers (90 miles) north of Lisbon. Some complete the last few hundred meters (yards) on their knees. Others toss wax limbs into a fire beside the Chapel of the Apparitions as they recite prayers for healing.

The shrine also contains dozens of shops where trinkets are sold alongside rosaries, bibles and assorted images of the Virgin Mary, including one that changes color with the weather.

WHY IS THE POPE GOING NOW?

Initially, Francis had planned to travel to Fatima merely to mark the 100th anniversary of the apparitions. Francis added a bonus event to his visit by announcing in March that he had approved the miracle needed to make saints of Francisco and Jacinta Marto — who died of influenza within two years of the initial apparitions.

He will be the fourth pontiff to visit Fatima, after Pope Paul VI marked the 50th anniversary in 1967, John Paul came three times and Benedict XVI visited once, in 2010.

After becoming a nun, Lucia became the main raconteur of the Fatima secrets. She died in 2005. In February of this year, Portuguese church officials completed the first phase of her beatification cause by sending more than 15,000 pages of testimony and documentation to the Vatican for review.

WHAT WILL THE POPE DO IN FATIMA?

Francis arrives on Friday afternoon and meets privately with Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa.

After a spin in his popemobile at Fatima, he'll pray at the chapel dedicated to the apparitions and send a greeting out to the crowd, which is expected to number up to 1 million people.

On Saturday, Francis meets with Prime Minister Antonio Costa and visits the basilica built on the site where the children reported the first apparition. He'll celebrate the canonization Mass in the main square, lunch with his bishops, and return to Rome in the evening.

Barry Hatton reported from Fatima, Portugal.

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7 Days until 97th anniversary of Our Lady of Fatima - Ukraine Burns

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Would you believe that 97 years ago, May 13, 1917, Our Lady made the first of 6 straight monthly appearances to warn the world of the dangers of Communism and telling us how it could be voided.

Of course most of us, like the people long ago in Portugal, refused to believe that the Mother of Jesus would come back, and that she would appear to poor village children, with such a momentous message.

In fact the people did everything they could to keep the truth from being known including holding the children at a jail one month so they would not be present.  You see, in spite of the efforts of the authorities to keep people from the truth word of mouth was more powerful than government censorship.

In the end she promised a miracle visible to all who would attend and on October 13, 1917 she delivered.  After raining all night before and raining when nearly 70,000 people showed up the 13th, The Lady had the Sun appear through the clouds and then come spiraling toward the earth and the crowd.

Personal accounts from the crowd indicated they thought it was the end of the world but suddenly the Sun stopped it's mad descent and returned to a clear sky.  When the people realized they were not going to die they looked around and discovered their drenched clothes were dry as well as the entire formerly rain soaked countryside.

There were no more unbelievers although some refused to allow themselves to attribute the events to a miracle.  What a shame to have been saturated with the Grace of God and to reject it but alas, such is human nature.  Too many of us have forgotten how to believe.

Still, the Pope and Bishops refused to do the little things she asked of them, to have every Bishop in the world consecrate Russia and to encourage the people to say the rosary every day.  It seems such a small price to pay for world peace and it cost not a cent to do it.

Just 5 weeks after the miracle the Bolsheviks started the November Revolution that murdered the Czar and his family and brought the rein of Hell to Russia in the form of Communism and the Soviet Union.

It would be 75 years before Communism would be stopped, the evil empire brought to an end, and the greatest killing machine in world history shut down.  The legacy of Lenin and Stalin left over 62 million people dead and more than half of the poor souls were the very citizens of Russia, demonstrating unequivocally the depth evil had penetrated this mad movement.

The Soviet Union with it's rabid atheism by design set out to destroy God and in the end the Soviet Union lost.  Yet the constant warnings over the nearly century since she appeared of the Holy Mother to fulfill her requests to consecrate Russia and encourage people to say the rosary continued to fall on deaf ears.

For more on the prophecy see this link to an earlier story.

http://coltonspointtimes.blogspot.com/2014/04/our-lady-of-fatima-warned-of-dangers-of.html

For those into the Kabala try this for irony.

Jesus died in the year 33 AD at 33 years old after preaching for 3 years.  There were 3 people directly involve in killing Jesus.

The 3 major players in the death of Jesus were Caiaphas, head of the Jewish Sanhedrin, the powerful court of justice in Judaism that legislated for the souls and bodies of men and the only court able to rule on religious matters.

Mary showed Sister Lucia this vision

Second was Pontius Pilate who was the fifth prefect of the Roman province of Judea during the trial of Jesus and served under Roman Emperor Tiberius.  Also known as Governor of Judea, Pilate is best remembered as the judge at the trial of Jesus charged with carrying out the wishes of the Jewish Sanhedrin.

The third major player was Herod of Antipas, son of Herod the great, the most evil of the kings of the Holy Land.  Herod Antipas was ruler of Galilee and Perea which he ruled as client states of the Roman Empire.

All 3 served during the reign and at the pleasure of Roman Emperor Tiberius.  Just 3 years after the death of Jesus at 33 AD and during the next 3 years all 3 plus Tiberius would die.  And about 37 years after the death of Jesus the City of Jerusalem was attacked by the Romans and after 3 years the City and the Second Temple of Solomon were destroyed with over 1 million Jews killed.

By the way, the Fatima anniversary in 7 days is just 3 years from the 100th year since Our Lady came to warn us.

Today the Ukraine people are at the mercy of Russian forces as the world stands by one again and does nothing.  Don't we ever hear the warnings?

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What Happened at Fatima? Today in History

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Today in 1917 was the first of six appearances of the Holy Mother Mary to three children in Fatima, Portugal. It is the most famous and well documented of all the appearances of the Holy Mother.





It was during these apparitions that she shared prophecy, taught prayer and at the last visit gave them a miracle all 55,000 people attending witnessed. Later her prophecies would shake the world.





This article shows you the actual newspaper accounts and pictures taken at the site during the miracle of the sun.





Newspaper Report of Fatima Miracle on October 13, 1917





The following newspaper account appeared in the newspaper O Século. In the prologue to this article, the author distances himself from the apparitions, which he presents as a consequence of “the great tribulations that society was going through. The times of great tribulations have always favored the rebirth of religious ideas and the war adds to their expansion creating a fertile environment.”



Are we in the midst of a similar, or worse, great tribulation?



...In the astonished eyes of these people, whose attitude takes us back to Biblical times, and who, white faced with shock, with their heads uncovered, face the blue sky: the sun has trembled, the sun has made sudden movements that were outside all cosmic laws—the sun has “danced”, according to the typical expression of the country people.



Covered with dust on the running board of the bus from Torres Novas, an old man recites the Creed, from beginning to end. I ask who it is and they tell me it is João Maria Amado de Melo Ramalho da Cunha Vasconcelo. I see him later talking to those around him, who still have their hats on, begging them, strongly, to take them off in the presence of such an extraordinary demonstration of the existence of God. Identical scenes are repeated in other places and a woman shouts, bathed in tears and almost suffocated:

--What a shame! There are still men who don’t take off their hats in the presence of such a miracle!



And next they ask each other if they have seen or not seen. Most confess that they have seen the dancing of the sun; others, however, declare they have seen the smiling face of the Virgin herself. They swear that the sun spun about itself like a ring of fireworks, that it came down almost to the point of burning the Earth with its rays.

Some say that they saw it change color.



It is about three in the afternoon.



The sky is covered with clouds and the sun follows its path with its normal brightness and no one dares to look at it directly. And what about the little shepherds? Lucia, "she who speaks with the Virgin," tells everyone, with theatrical gestures, being held by a man who carries her from group to group, the war will end and that our soldiers will come back.



This news, however, does not increase the joy of those who are listening. The heavenly sign was everything. There is an intense curiosity to see the two little girls with their garlands of flowers. There are some who try to kiss the hands of the “little saints”, one of whom, Jacinta, looks more like she is going to faint than to dance. That which they were all looking for—the sign from Heaven—has been enough to satisfy them and make them convinced of their faith.



The people start to leave quickly. Without problems, without any disorder, without the need of any police. The pilgrims who leave more quickly are those who arrived earlier. They walk barefoot with their shoes on their heads or hanging on sticks. They are leaving with their soul satisfied to spread the good news to the villages they left. And what about the priests? Some came to this place, smiling, spending more time with the curious spectators than with the pilgrims who were anxious to see a miracle. Maybe one or another couldn’t hide the satisfaction which is so hard to hide on the faces of those who triumph.

Now it is up to those who are qualified to give their opinion on the strange dancing of the sun that today, in Fátima, caused hosannas to explode from the hearts of the faithful and caused astonishment —according to reliable sources—even in free thinkers and other people without religious beliefs who came to this now famous place.



Avelino de Almeida

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